Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., said Monday that she expected the remaining differences between House and Senate versions of major opioid legislation to be resolved by Tuesday, clearing a path to President Trump’s desk for the legislation.
“I think we will have this pretty well resolved in the next 12 hours,” she said late Monday, referring to the opioid legislation.
Murray told the Washington Examiner that she believes that the final Senate-House compromise bill will be ready for the House to vote on this week, before it recesses until the November elections.
One major outstanding consideration, though, is whether a provision favoring the pharmaceutical industry will make it into the final compromise bill.
The pharmaceutical industry has been seeking to include in the package a measure to avoid having to offer large discounts for certain drugs covered under Medicare.
Several outside groups say that pharmaceutical industry lobbyists are still looking to insert the industry-friendly provision into the opioid legislation.
“Big Pharma is trying to exploit every possible legislative avenue to get their bailout — no matter the cost to seniors and taxpayers,” the Campaign for Sustainable Rx Pricing, a group that pursues drug pricing reforms in Congress, said in a statement.
Another issue is whether to partially repeal a decadesold rule that prevents hospitals and treatment facilities from getting Medicare dollars if they have more than 16 beds dedicated for patients suffering from mental illness or addiction.
The House package included a bill that partially repealed the rule, but partial repeal was left out of the Senate package. A bipartisan group of senators introduced legislation last week to do a partial repeal of the rule, with the goal of inserting the legislation into the final version.
